Plans to build a new £20 million regional centre for people with brain disabilities are about to get the green light.

Plans to build a new &#xA3;20 million regional centre for people with brain disabilities are about to get the green light.

The neuro-disability centre project is at Newcastle's Walkergate Hospital.

The move spells the end of a long-running wrangle over the future of the hospital site, which was once earmarked for a supermarket.

Residents backed by the city council objected and the idea was eventually thrown out following a public inquiry.

Now a planning application for a neuro centre from the Northgate & Prudhoe NHS Trust is set to be approved by city councillors at a development control committee meeting on Friday.

The centre will include residential accommodation for patients with brain injuries and disabilities.

There will also be out-patient facilities, offices and education and training accommodation.

Health officials say the new unit will be Private Finance Initiative-funded and will bring together services currently based at Hunters Moor Hospital and the Sanderson Centre, both Newcastle, and Prudhoe Hospital, along with neuro-psychiatry.

Walkergate Hospital dates from the 1880s, but has been scaled down in recent years.

Some residents have voiced concern at a possible increase in traffic and want a new junction with traffic lights into the site, on Benfield Road.

Council officials say modifications to road markings will suffice.

Newcastle City Council head of planning and transportation John Miller said the unit would be a "regional medical facility on a site which has historically been used for hospital purposes".

The plan is to start work next year and the new centre could open towards the end of 2006.